Bishamon
Bishamon is a cursed samurai who first appeared in Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (Vampire: The Night Warriors in Japan). He dons the demonic armor Hannya and uses the blood thirsty sword Kien and has a wife named Orin who appears in his Darkstalkers ending. A hidden alternate version of Bishamon, Oboro Bishamon is a hidden character and special boss in Vampire Savior. Oboro Bishamon is a controled version of Bishamon who is not bound by the dark magic of Hannya and Kien. Outside of video game series, Bishamon has appeared in the American cartoon series Darkstalkers as well as the second episode of Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge - The Animated Series. Similarly to the Night Warriors Animated TV series, he appears in the UDON comics and fights against the Darkhunter, Donovan Baine. Background When Bishamon was looking around in an antique shop for his people, as if drawn by fate, he found a piece of armor and a sword. At this moment, he lost his own thought. When he realized where he was, he was at his house. The armor and sword sitting beside him. When he went back to the store to ask what happened, he found out that he forced the owner to give the armor and sword to him. Bishamon himself had no memory of this. It made no sense to him but as he stared at the armor, it felt meaningless to him. At the time, his wife Orin worried about Bishamon as he sat in front of the armor for days. She asked him to let go of the armor and sword. Two weeks later, he decided to wear the armor to find out what happened to him. The moment he wore the armor, he felt its magic corrupting him. But he realized that everything was too late and screamed with his last bit of strength, "Run......Run, Orin!!!" Bishamon's mind was corrupted by its dark magic. He had donned Hannya, the armor of hate and Kien, the blood sucking sword. He went on countless days of battle as Hannya demanded more sacrifices. When Bishamon had fought against Pyron, Pyron's energies caused Bishamon to be separated from Hannya's curse. He and his wife became monks. The practice he had started was called roppoudou. This practice gave its followers a strong mind and would cleanse the followers' mind and spirit of impurities. Traveling throughout Japan brought peace to his heart again. Several years later, he had stopped by an old temple. There, he found writings about a realm known as "Makai". Within these writings contained drawings depicting the armor, "Hannya", and the sword, "Kien" and other creatures similar to those in the drawling. Bishamon thought to himself, a person like himself may appear again. He wanted to prevent a similar curse from happening again to a fellow warrior. He had already felt the dark magic of the armor, he had to seal it away. To make contact with the realm of Makai, he secluded himself within a deep snowy mountain. He sat down and held the shakujou, or monk staff, and started to meditate. When his spiritual strength had reached it's peak, he could sense a different realm of supernatural beings. He was determined to seal the armor back to the realm. At the same time, Hannya had started to thirst for blood once again. Even without having a host, the armor and sword started to move again. They gathered all the souls who had this armor on them to create a body and moved out to hunt. When Hannya and Kien moved out, they were sucked into the realm of Majigen. But before Hannya could kill, Bishamon had caught up to him and sealed him away. After these events, Bishamon had returned home and to his peaceful life with his wife. Personality Due to the sword and armor's influence, Bishamon's mind is plagued with darkness as he lusts for more destruction. Despite this accursed power, Bishamon still cares for his beloved wife, Orin, so much that he used every last bit of his strength to stall the armor from striking his wife, giving her the chance to escape with her life. As a noble and honorable samurai, Bishamon feels shamefully responsible for the countless kills that the cursed sword and armor made him do to innocents. To atone for this. he and Orin became ascetic monks to seek redemption. He is determined to prevent a repeat of what happened to him, and seeks out to seal Hannya and Kien in Makai to prevent the accursed articles from plaguing the world. Powers and Abilites The armor gives the user many supernatural abilities such as the power to make many versions of oneself, sensing different eneriges from afar, absorbing the souls of humans through combat, and enhanching a user's strengh and speed. Hannya, The Cursed Armor This armor was maded by a Makai beast that was a servant of Jedah Dohma, It came into the human world roughly 600 years ago. Oda Nobunaga had also worn the armor, though its appearance was different. The armor would grant its host supernatural abilities, but in return would turn them into a monster. It would shine brighter the more powered it showen, the host wearing it would slowly lose their soul. After the age of war had ended, it would travel using antique shops to find new people for it to wear. Kien, The Blood Thirsty Sword In the 1580's, a sword was forged in Makai by the name of "Onikiri" that was sent into the human world by Jedah Dohma. As a sword is used to cut a human, its edges would dull because of the blood within the body of a human. But the Onikiri became sharper as it cut more people due to the way its edges were made. People feared the sword due to the illusion that it would suck into a human body. It was said that if the user did not kill, the sword would cause it's user soul to be lost. After the time of peace had come, the Onikiri had disappeared for roughly ten years only to come back in a set with Hannya. By this time, it had already been affected by the magic of Makai, and had changed its own name to "Kien." The cause is unknown. About 'real' cursed samurai When the Shogun ruled Japan, Samurai became the heroes of Asia. The most skilled Samurai became legends. However, this made lesser skilled warriors jealous and zealous to become legends as well. There is an ancient legend of Myth that says an Evil Sorcerer took advantage of this jealousy. He sought out a handful of the most skilled, but under appreciated, samurai warriors in all of Asia. He offered them a deal. He would give them enhanced abilities and great skills which would make them legends for their souls and the souls of their offspring. It is said that more than a few samurai were willing to trade their souls for fame and glory. These men became known as the soulless Samurai. They were unstoppable in battle, but they found that no fame or fortune was worth the price of their souls. At anytime he wanted to, the sorcerer would remove their soul. A body without a soul, as these warriors soon discovered, is transformed into absolute evil. These soulless samurai became Wraith-like creatures with an unquenchable thirst for battle. While they had their souls, they were legendary warriors of asian that people dreamed of. With their souls removed, they became a demon that tormented the nightmares of peope. In a later period, Asia had changed and there was no longer any need for the warriors of old. With Asia united and enjoying peace, the respect the samurai once enjoyed turned to contempt. It was made illegal for the peasantry to carry a sword due to how dangerous they were. Many samurai tried to rebel, but found that sword-wielding Samurai were easily crushed by Gun-Toting Policemen. Many of these Samurai went into hiding and formed secret societies. But, even among the most secret societies, the Cursed Samurai who had sold their souls for fame were outcasts. Many of the other warriors thought it a great honor to eradicate these demons, the Cursed Samurai. They hunted these Ronin and killed any of their offspring they could find. Soon these families went into hiding. They formed a secret society to pass the knowledge and skills they had learned on the battlefield down to others, so that they might be strong enough to overcome the terrible curse their forefathers brought on them. It has been said that the Sorcerer told the Samurai that if they were to find the greatest warrior on earth and defeat him in a fair fight, they would win back their soul. It is believed that they have been searching for the world's greatest fighters for centuries. About Tsukumogami In Japan, tsukumogami, literally "artifact spirit", are items that has come to life over the period of 100 years. Depending on the condition and what kind of object it is, tsukumogami can either be good in nature, or outright evil. When tsukumogami awaken, they manifest a face on themselves, which depends where a face can be properly placed, and or limbs to move around with. Appearances Darkstalkers series= *''Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors'' *''Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge'' *''Darkstalkers 3'' *''Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower'' *''Darkstalkers Resurrection'' In Japanese only games *''Vampire Hunter 2'' *''Vampire Savior 2'' *''Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service'' *''Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection'' |-| Other Games= *''SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash'' *''SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash 2'' *''SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS'' |-| Cameos= *''Pocket Fighter'' - Bishamon appears on two stages, Chinatown Restaurant right next to Victor and on La Menkoi Ski Resort stage in the igloo along with Sodom. The dog Tarou as well as the two girls from Bishamon's Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors stage also make an appearance. *''Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3'' - Bishamon appears on a card in Heroes and Heralds. |-| Other media= *''Darkstalkers (TV series)'' *''Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge: Bishamon appears in the second chapter "Blood of the Darkstalkers, Power of the Darkstalkers" where he fights the dark hunter, Donovan. He is voiced by Don Brown in the English version and Shozo Iizuka in the Japanese release while the cursed armor, Hannya is voiced by Michael Dobson and Masashi Ebara in the Japanese version. *Darkstalkers/''Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (UDON Comics): In issue 02 he fights against Donovan and later in an origin story in issue 05 of the Darkstalkers. He returns in Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors issue 02 where he again fights Donovan and is released from the cursed armor. Trivia *The dog that appears in Bishamon's Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors stage is named Tarou. Tarou also appears in the ''Vampire Savior'' stage Abaraya, he will appear from under a blanket after the round is won. *In Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2, Oboro Bishamon has an alternate Midnight Bliss transformation. In this transformation he appears with a natural skin tone and his hair shorter and white. *Bishamon's spirits from the first two games were merely burning souls. As of Vampire Savior and onwards, the souls have ominous faces, making it appear much more menacing. **Also in Night Warriors, one of Bishamon's win poses involves the spirits materializing into a single entity of a lady. The spirit lady is often identified as Orin, his wife. She restrains the enemy when the souls successfully hits its standing or crouching target. *Bishamon also has the ability to dismember enemies head to toe, an ability he shares with Jon Talbain. This is only apparent after Bishamon successfully pulls off an ES Kirisuto Gomen on an enemy. The enemy, once on the ground, will show signs of being sliced vertically. In earlier versions of the game, this kind of dismemberment can't be seen easily, but more recent versions of the game shows properly the defeated enemy vertically dismembered with the appropriate move. *Bishamon's appearance is very similar to that of Sodom from the Street Fighter series. *Along with Lord Raptor, Bishamon has a unique winpose if he wins the final match of the game in Darkstalkers and Night Warriors. The armor leaves him and he is left groveling on the ground as he ponders about his fate. Interestingly, this animation was reused in Vampire Savior and subsequent games to be his own entrance animation, due to the fact Bishamon himself is no longer being possessed, and the armor and sword now acting autonomously. Sprites Fighting games= |-| Card Fighters= Official artwork Videos Darkstalkers Resurrection - Bishamon|Bishamon Moves List Darkstalkers - Bishamon Character Strategy|Bishamon Character Strategy Bishamon's Darkstalkers 3 Ending|''Darkstalkers 3'' ending Bishamon's Night Warriors Ending|''Night Warriors'' ending External links *Bishamon - Strategy Wiki *Bishamon - Mizuumi Wiki *Bishamon - Capcom Database Navigation References Category:Characters Category:UDON Characters Category:Antagonists Category:Japanese